148 ASSOCIATION OF ORGANISMS THE WEB OF LIFE 



succeeds in seizing the other by the head and holding him under 

 water, till he is in danger of suffocating, or at least until he is 

 so much exhausted that he is unable to continue the struggle." 



A battle -royal between two cock chaffinches is represented 

 in fig. 1109. 



THE LAW OF BEAUTY. It is familiar to all that male birds 

 very often differ markedly from the females in the possession 

 of more ornamental characters, and a more powerful or more 

 beautiful voice. And it is significant tfrat their charms are in 

 full perfection at the time of mating. The contrast between 

 the sexes is obvious on looking round any poultry-yard. Among 

 ordinary fowls the striking plumage of the cock, and his scarlet 

 wattles and comb, make him a handsome bird by contrast with 

 the rather dowdy hen. The drake is distinctly handsomer than 

 the duck. But such examples are far excelled by some of the 

 allies of domesticated fowls, for in many of these the plumage 

 of the male is beautiful beyond mere verbal description. Such 

 in particular are the Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus\ 

 Amherst's Pheasant (C. Amher slice), the Argus Pheasant 

 (Argusianus giganteus\ and the Peacock (Pavo cristatus]. Gor- 

 geously decorated male birds of the sort display their charms 

 during courtship in a remarkable manner. We may take as an 

 example the Scarlet Tragopan (Tragopan saturd), of which the 

 following description by Ogilvie Grant (in The Royal Natural 

 History") will convey some idea of the brilliancy of the colour- 

 scheme: " The male has the top and sides of the head black, 

 the neck, mantle, and under-parts orange-carmine, and the rest 

 of the upper parts olive-brown, each feather being ornamented 

 at the tip with a round white spot, partially or entirely margined 

 with black; the outer wing -coverts being edged on each side 

 with dark orange-carmine. The throat -wattle is salmon-colour 

 with transverse blue bars, and the legs are pale flesh." Brehm, 

 after describing the love -dances of various birds, thus speaks (in 

 From North Pole to Equator] of this particular form: " More 

 remarkable than all the rest is the behaviour of the male tragopans 

 or horned pheasants of Southern Asia, magnificently decorative 

 birds, distinguished by two brightly-coloured horn-like tubes of 

 skin on the sides of the head, and by brilliantly-coloured extensible 

 wattles. After the cock has walked round the hen several times 

 without appearing to pay any attention to her, he stands still at 



